I.
IntroductionThe Quiché Maya
Mayan Time
Jungle Time
Tzolkin: 13 and 20
Origins
The Gregorian Calendar
Haab
Year Bearers
The Year Bearer is also the Month Bearer
New Years Day
The Little New Years Day
The Four Sacred Mountain
The Calendar Round
The 8 Mountain Festival Mountain
Skywatching EventsII.Your Guide: Using the Uinal Wheels18 Uinal Wheels
for The 7 Wind YearIII.ImplicationsThe Venus Round
Calendar
Hunab K'u
Summary
PoemIV.Finding Your Tzolkin Birth Date

7 Wind provides a format for teaching
about the workings of the Mesoamerican Sacred Calendar. Because the
ancient calendar tradition is still alive in the highlands of
Guatemala, the details related here correspond with the practices of
the present day Quiché Maya. As such, this booklet is an educational
calendar. It serves as a focus for sharing the many related aspects
of the Quiché world, and offers the chance to track the sacred count
of days, in solidarity with the Quiché Maya.

The Quiché Maya Two large groups of Mayan
people survive, one in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico and one in
the cool, tropical mountains of Western Guatemala. Which of these
offers the clearest survival of the ancient calendar tradition?
Without doubt, the highlands of Guatemala, due to their remoteness,
have preserved the ancient traditions in their purest form.

The calendar tradition in the Yucatan
has suffered many adjustments and alterations since the conquest
and, although the traditions there provide other valuable
ethnographic material, any field work data from the Yucatan must
take into account the post-conquest distortions. So the search
unmistakably points to the Quiché Maya. A brief introduction to
Quiché history and culture will help put into context the specific
calendar practices discussed in the remaining sections of 7 Wind.

The present-day Quiché Maya are the descendants of a once wealthy
pre-hispanic kingdom. The Quiché forefathers came from an ancient
homeland called Tulan Zuyua. This was an area along the gulf coast
in the Mexican state of Tabasco. Toltec dynasties arose there after
the fall of Tula in central Mexico, when migrations to the Yucatan
cities of Chichen Itza and Uxmal took place around the year 1000
A.D.

Strategically situated on established
migration and trade routes between the old Toltec cities of Central
Mexico and the Classic Maya cities of the Yucatan, Tulan Zuyua was
also near the mouth of the Usamacinta river, which leads inland
through Chiapas and into the highlands of Guatemala. Quiché
documents relate that 13 separate groups of Toltec priest-warriors
migrated to the highlands around the year 1200 A.D.

The Quiché people arose and eventually
grew to dominate the other Mayan groups of the area - the Cakchiquel,
Ixil, Mam, and the Tzutuhil. Quiché civilization reached its apex
just before the conquest, circa 1450, but ultimately fell to the
conquistador Pedro Alvarado in 1524.

During the conquest, the Cakchiquel
leaders Nine Dog and Three Deer were executed and the Tzutuhil chief
Tecun Uman is said to have been killed in a hand to hand duel with
Alvarado on the shores of Lake Atitlan. The last Quiché capital was
at K'umarcaaj, near Santa Cruz del Quiché. The ruins are now known
as Utatlan, and are still the focus of shrine ceremonies and
rituals.

People who speak Quiché (numbering close to 1,000,000) and share
Quiché traditions are located in various towns throughout the
highlands. Some of these towns are: Momostenango, Santa Cruz del
Quiché, Totonicapan, El Palmar, and Chichicastenango. The
neighboring Tzutuhiles populate the shores of Lake Atitlan, while
the Ixil Maya share areas of the highlands with the Quiché in towns
such as Nebaj, Todos Santos and Huehuetenango.

Momostenango will be of particular
interest to us, because that area seems to have enjoyed a certain
autonomy over the centuries, as well as a seeming immunity from
ongoing attempts to destroy native culture. The major reason for
this goes back to the conquest, when Quiché patrilineage leaders
were given privileged positions in the local Momostecan community.
Since then, a continuous experiment of shared government between the Quiché and the Spaniards has taken place, along with a blending of
Christian and Indigenous symbology, enabling the essential ancient
traditions to survive.

This is not to say that the process has
been without oppression and revolt. Indeed, periodic "development
programs" by Catholic catequistas and, more recently, the
Evangelicals have threatened the continuity of the calendar
traditions. But for various reasons Momostenango has survived the
worst, even emerging from the genocidal government tactics of the
1980's relatively unscathed. As a result of this autonomy, and
setting it apart from the many other Mayan towns in the highlands,
Momostenango retains a complex practice of visiting local
earth-shrines on specific days in the sacred count.

These practices have been recorded in
the excellent book Time and the Highland Maya, by Barbara Tedlock.
Provided with this valuable information, we can explore the meaning
of Mayan time and earth-worship. What a wonderful place Momostenango
must be - where calendar-priests of all kinds, from different towns
even, climb the sacred mountains to burn copal and pray to Day-Gods,
the Year-Bearer, and to Nantat, the ancestors.

It seems that the entire geography
surrounding Momostenango has been made sacred, by regular ceremonies
at family, community, and regional earth-shrines. Indeed,
Momostenango is a Nahuatl term meaning "place of the shrines." It is
also the place where the most famous indigenous festival timed by
the tzolkin calendar is held: the 8 Monkey festival.

So it seems that the Quiché people can be traced back to the
Toltecs
- the builders of Teotihuacan in Central Mexico. And along the way
other influences were absorbed, those of the Yucatec Maya and the
Nahuatl, many of whom came from Tlaxcala with Pedro Alvarado. And
even before the conquest, trade routes were well established with
the major parts of Mesoamerica. Going back further in time, who were
the people that the migrating Toltec warriors encountered in the
highlands, with whom blood alliances were inevitably established?

Perhaps they were descendants of the
Olmecs, who are known to have had towns in Guatemala -
giant Olmec
heads can still be found in the central park of El Baul on the
pacific slopes. Some of this we can only speculate about, but one
thing is for certain: The ancient tzolkin count has survived in the
mountains of Guatemala.

The importance of this cannot be understated. Contrary to what many
think, the Maya have not been conquered. In remote villages in the
mountains of Guatemala, their culture lives on, though forever
changed by the European invasion. Amazingly, and as a testimony to
its universal appeal, the Sacred Calendar has survived for some 3000
years. The passage of days has been followed unbroken all that time,
from before the Buddha, through all of Western History and on down
to the present.

The Maya have admittedly undergone many
changes — migrations, invasions and wars have come and gone in the
vast expanse of time since the Sacred Count first emerged. And now
we find ourselves nearing the end of a Great Cycle of time as
conceived by the ancient Maya. Perhaps it is time that we sat down
to counsel with the Quiché Maya —"the last holders of the torch."

Mayan Time When we study the Sacred
Calendar presented within, we soon discover that it is an incredible
mind-boggling method of tracking time. The Maya combined a year
cycle of 365 days with a sacred cycle of 260 days. The year cycle
was called a haab, and the sacred cycle was called the tzolkin. The
term tzolkin is derived from the Quiché phrase Ch'ol Q'ij -
count of
days. The tzolkin and haab synchronize every 52 haab (just under 52
years).

This large period of time was called the
Calendar Round. The framework of days created by combining the
tzolkin and haab serves many purposes, and this is why it is
incredible. The problem with our calendar, the Gregorian calendar,
is that it is only used to track time! The Mayan tzolkin/haab system
was used to track astronomical cycles, as well as agricultural and
human cycles. Because of this, it provides a model in which human
life is mirrored by the celestial cycles of Moon, Venus, Mars and
certain stars. As they say in the Far East, the microcosm reflects
the macrocosm.

This principle became a distinguishing
feature of the philosophies of the Far East, as well as in the
religions of Native America. Throughout the various aspects of
Quiché culture, we find this unifying principle in operation. It
indicates an attitude of "learning from nature," which in turn leads
to an understanding of human nature. And what is it to be human? The
skywatchers of ancient Central America may have asked themselves
that same question many times. And it is difficult to reconcile this
paradox, however true it rings: that we come from stars and spring
from the earth, and the greatest gifts of life are simply a mystery.

As mentioned, the tzolkin/haab encodes an expanded, more
comprehensive conception of time, one in which astronomical,
agricultural, meteorological, cultural and human cycles are all
interrelated. In following the Sacred Count of Days along with the
Quiché Maya, we may begin to understand more deeply their profound
conception of the earth as a living, spiritual being.

Jungle Time
The many interlocking cycles of Mayan time suggest the inner meaning
of the Mayan world view. A good analogy for the Mayan cosmo-conception,
encoded in their calendric number philosophy, is the jungle. The
jungle is a place of incredible variety, a multitude of organic
forms competing for sunlight, yet all participating in a dynamic and
delicately balanced drama of life and death. Likewise, the component
cycles of the Mayan calendar combine in varying degrees of harmony
and dissonance.

The "key constant" of the Mayan time system is the 260-day cycle,
which corresponds to the 9-moon cycle of human gestation. The
world-view thus springing from the tzolkin "key" is profoundly
organic. Strangely, its uses in predicting astronomical cycles are
just as profound. And this is the heart of the mystery of the
tzolkin. It provides a calendric framework which describes the
cycles in the microcosm of nature as well as the cycles of the
macrocosm.

As such, it provides a metaphysical
model for understanding the interface of subjective and objective
reality. In light of our present environmental crisis, which springs
from an incomplete understanding of the relationship of mind to
nature, the Mayan sacred calendar offers a much needed new paradigm.
(Actually, it is only "new" to us.) When we look at all of its
multiple meanings, we discover that it is much more than a calendar.

One may think that because the haab uses a 365-day approximation of
the solar year, without any leap-years, that the Mayan calendar is
less accurate and therefore inferior to our Gregorian system. It is
a mistake to think of the sacred calendar in this way. As just
explored, the framework of days provided by the tzolkin/haab is a
mytho-computer more comprehensive in its scope than our Gregorian.
In addition, the ancient Maya were quite aware of the true solar
year of 365.2422 days.

This is evident for two reasons. First,
they knew that 1507 true solar years was equal to 1508 haab. Second,
with their Long Count calendar they could calculate solstice and
equinox positions for many thousands of years into the future. This
explains how they could have placed the end date of the Long Count
Great Cycle exactly on the winter solstice of 2012 A.D. This is
truly phenomenal considering that the Long Count was conceived
around 300 B.C.!

The Maya chose to retain the "no leap-year" tzolkin/haab framework
because they recognized and used its phenomenal multidimensional
implications. One of these was that it structures the cycle of
Venus. Early on in the development of Mayan culture, the skywatchers
discovered that a period of 2 Calendar Rounds delineates when the
Venus cycle synchronizes with the tzolkin/haab. This 2 Calendar
Round period is called a Venus Round.

The beginning of the Venus cycle was
figured to be when it emerges as morning-star. This occurs about
every 584 days. This 584-day cycle meshes with the 260-day tzolkin
in such a way that Venus always emerges on 5 possible day-signs.
Mythologies developed around these five day-signs. One of the
day-signs was the most significant, because it indicated the Venus morningstar appearance which synchronized all three cycles of
tzolkin, haab and Venus, to begin a new Venus Round period. This day
was 1 Ahau, the Sacred Day of Venus.

But the present day Maya no longer follow the Venus Calendar, and
only vaguely recognize the Calendar Round period. Yet the Mayan
Venus Round calendar was very important to the pre-conquest Maya. If
we choose to, we can resurrect it, adjust for accumulated
discrepancies, and begin following it again in honor of the ancient
Maya. And, in accordance with what we already suspect about Mayan
calendars, it is more than simply a predictive calendar; mythologies
are interwoven with the movements of Venus.

The ancient
Popol Vuh of the Quiché Maya
relates the adventures of the Hero twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque as
they battle with the Lords of Xibalba. Their adventures are actually
metaphors for the movement of Venus through 5 cycles. And the Aztec
god Quetzalcoatl journeys through the underworld and ultimately
ascends to become the morningstar Venus.

In my recent book Tzolkin, I have shown that the Venus Calendar
system of the ancient Maya still works. I also demonstrate how it is
that the next Sacred Day of Venus occurs on the Venus rising of
April 3rd, 2001 - which is 1 Ahau. At any rate, we will limit this
introduction to the tzolkin/haab calendar, which the surviving Maya
of Guatemala still follow. Everything related to the Venus Calendar
can, without alteration, fall into the tzolkin/haab framework. We'll
discuss this a bit more in the "Implications" chapter.

Tzolkin: 13 and 20 The 260-day tzolkin arises
from 20 day-signs combined with a number from 1 to 13. The
progression of days and numbers is different than our system of
months and numbers. In our year system, July 3rd is followed by July
4th, July 5th and so on. In the tzolkin, 1 Tooth is followed by 2
Staff, 3 Jaguar, 4 Eagle and so on. In other words, the numbers and
day-signs both click off simultaneously.

Twenty is a key number in Mayan mathematics. It is based on the 10
fingers and 10 toes. The twenty day-signs are glyphic
representations of important themes in Mayan life. As a whole, the
meanings behind the 20 day-signs suggest a journey of unfolding from
first to last. To give each day-sign a one word translation is
somewhat misleading. When a daykeeper casts a reading for a client,
he or she intends to answer questions or resolve a crisis by using
the tzolkin as an oracle.

In such a practice, the multiple
interpretations of the day-signs are considered in determining the
reading. The expanded meanings are derived through linguistic
associations - through word puns and rhymes. So the one-word
translations that follow are only sketches of the full meanings of
the day-signs, as understood by the Quiché:

Earth

Wind

House

Lizard

Serpent

Death

Deer

Rabbit

Rain

Dog

Monkey

Tooth

Staff

Jaguar

Eagle

Owl

Quake

Knife

Storm

Birth

Alternative meanings:

Earth - Alligator

House - Night

Rain - Water

Tooth - Road

Staff - Caneplant

Quake
- Thought

Knife - Flint

Birth - Lord

These are similar to the Classic Maya meanings. Strangely, the
geomantic journey implied from this sequence ends with the day-sign
Ahau, which I have translated as birth. The reason for supposing
that Ahau can be equated with birth is because 1 Ahau, as the Sacred
Day of Venus, designates the conjunction of the three cycles of
Venus, haab and tzolkin, and the beginning of a new Venus Round
period of 104 haab.

Needless to say, beginnings are related
to birth. The image gains graphic support when we realize that Venus
emerges as morningstar on this date, being visibly "shot forth" or
"born" from the morning sun. Also, the Yucatec Maya translation of
Ahau is "marksman" or "blowgunner." That the 20-day sequence ends
with Birth refers to the Mayan concept of time as not only cyclic,
but as leading to something new. Mayan time encodes an unfolding
type of cycle, a spiral growth of human and cosmic proportions -
something beyond the scope of circular "clock" time.

The 13 numbers have at least two meanings in Quiché thought. As
Barbara Tedlock points out in her wonderful book Time and the
Highland Maya, the Quiché Maya recognize 13 phases of the moon from
new to full. At first thought this may seem questionable, but anyone
watching the waxing of the moon will discover that this is quite
accurate. The lunar month equals 29.6 days. The moon is not visible
at new moon, as it is too close to the sun to be observed after
sunset.

On the second day it is usually visible
as a sliver in the west right around sunset. Counting forward, the
moon increases in phase for 13 days. Each day represents a distinct
phase during the moon's growth to fullness. By day 13, for all
apparent purposes, it is full - the moon actually appears to be full
for 2 to 3 days. In this way 13 symbolizes the growth of the moon
from new to full.

Furthermore, the phases actually
indicate the three-way relationship between the earth, sun and moon,
something that is not immediately apparent. In a similar way, the
365-day "solar" cycle is in fact the "earth" cycle of the earth
around the sun. If we think through the apparently obvious from
different perspectives, the paradoxical secrets of nature are
revealed.

The Quiché Maya of Momostenango retain another interpretation of the
meaning of the 13 numbers. The geography around Momostenango is
mountainous, and there are many shrines for miles around which need
to be visited on specific tzolkin days. The sites closer to town,
the ones at a lower elevation, are visited on tzolkin days with a
lower number (for example: 3 Quake). Shrines on the high distant
mountains are visited on days with a high number, for example: 11
Wind or 13 Staff. So the 13 numbers also represent verticality in
Quiché thought.

Origins
Perhaps the greatest mystery surrounding the tzolkin count is its
origins. Why 260? Some say that the 260 day-cycle arose to structure
planting and harvesting dates. It does happen to correspond with the
time between planting and harvesting of certain types of corn in
highland Guatemala. Yet it is generally thought that the Sacred
Calendar originated among the lowland Olmec, sometime around 700
B.C.

The earliest tzolkin date known was
found at an Olmec site and corresponds with 679 B.C. Another
explanation is that the 260-day cycle is derived from early attempts
to track the movements of Venus and the sun. One explanation given
among contemporary Quiché daykeepers is that it corresponds to the
260-day period of human gestation. This equals approximately nine
months, and is therefore one reason for calling the tzolkin a
"lunar" calendar.

The origins of the sacred calendar are
ultimately shrouded in mystery. In my studies I have been mainly
concerned with searching for the essence of its incredible
qualities. Above all, the tzolkin has many different uses, or what I
call "multiple meanings." This very fact may be why the number 260
was considered to be sacred.

The Gregorian Calendar Just to clarify, the calendar
system which is now used virtually around the globe is called the
Gregorian calendar. It is a highly accurate calendar, a perfection
of the Julian Calendar, and came into use in the year 1582.

It utilizes a leap year every four
years. And to adjust for a further discrepancy, it ignores leap
years if the year is divisible by 100 but not by 400. Thus the years
1600 and 2000 are leap years, but 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2100 are not.

Haab
The haab (pronounced "hob") is the yearly cycle of 365 days, and the
term means "cycle of rains." It consists of 18 months of 20 days
each, with a 5 day extra month at the end. The Mayan word for these
20-day months is uinal. The haab count proceeds like our own month
and days. For example: 3 Bird Days is followed by 4 Bird Days, 5
Bird Days and so on. Unlike the Classic Period Maya, who started
their months with 0, the Quiché count month-days from 1 to 20.

The Quiché still use the haab count,
though it doesn't seem to have as much importance as the tzolkin
count. It just may be that the intervention of the Gregorian
calendar replaced the haab as a useful "civil" calendar. The
difference is that the haab doesn't recognize leap years, and
therefore preserves a repeating count of 365 days. This is important
so that its mythological relationship to the tzolkin stays
consistent. Also, the New Years Day of the haab is not January 1st.

The New Years Day celebrated by the
Quiché presently falls on Feb 26th. Many ceremonies occur in
preparation for this event. Because the haab does not count
leap-years, New Years Day falls back one day every four years. The
eighteen months are named as follows:

The 19th month of 5 days is called
"Extra Days". This is a time when people stay at home, abstain from
sex and eat little. They are preparing for the entering of the next
year bearer. The month names may not be explicitely recollected at
the beginning of each uinal. Nevertheless, the first day of each
uinal is celebrated as an echo of the year bearer.

Year Bearers Each year is named according
to the tzolkin day which falls on New Years Day. The 260-day and
365-day cycle mesh in such a way that the first day of the haab (New
Years Day) can fall on 4 possible day-signs. This is because 20 goes
into 365 days eighteen times with 5 left over. Thus, every year the
day-sign falling on New Years Day increases by five. Five goes into
twenty 4 times, and so there are four possible year bearers.

The year bearers represent the 4
directions, and correspond with the 4 sacred mountains around
Momostenango. The 5 days of the "Extra Days" month leading up to the
entering of the new year bearer are filled with anxious expectation,
councils and talk of the qualities of the coming year bearer.

The 4 year bearers of the Quiché Maya
are: Wind, Deer, Tooth, and Quake. The numbers associated with each
year bearer increase by one every year (13 goes into 365
twenty-eight times with 1 left over). In this way, the year which
begins on Feb. 26th, 1993 is 7 Wind. Wind is known as a very bravo
year bearer, bringing violent rainstorms or else windstorms without
rain.

On 1, 6 and 8 Wind days during a Wind
year, daykeepers ask that lightning, earthquakes and floods do not
destroy their homes. They also ask that negative emotions do not
attack themselves, their family, or their clients. The following
year, beginning on Feb 26th, 1994 is called 8 Deer. 8 Deer is a
special day for the Quiché, and it will be interesting to learn
whether the entering of this year bearer in '94 will entail any
special ceremonies.

The Year Bearer is also the Month
Bearer The eighteen haab months each
have 20 days. Because of this, each haab month necessarily begins on
the year bearer day-sign. The number, however, will change from
month to month. So the year bearer also is the haab month bearer,
and the year bearer is honored on these days - the first day of each
haab month.

The twenty-day month wheels in 7 Wind
all begin on Wind, and designate the 18 haab months. Because Wind is
regarded as a particularly violent year-bearer, it is only observed
on a few of the uinals, ones which begin with 1 Wind, 6 Wind and 8
Wind. These regular celebrations typically involve fireworks,
alcohol and shrine ceremonies.

New Years Day
Why February 26th? One can only speculate on this matter. Throughout
Mayan history, calendric shifts usually involved the year-bearer
system used and New Years Day. It is important to note that the
sacred 260-day cycle itself always remained unbroken. Perhaps when
the Quiché and Ixil people migrated to the highlands of Guatemala
around the year 1200 A.D., they implemented a shift to coordinate
New Years Day with the fall equinox.

Since then, New Years Day has fallen
back over 200 days, so that in 1993 it occurs on February 26th. Or
perhaps they made a change to coordinate New Years Day with a Venus
rising - to synchronize the Calendar Round beginning with the Venus
Round beginning.

At any rate, the Quiché New Years Day no doubt
originated from the Classic Maya New Years Day (300 A.D. - 900
A.D.), which, although no longer followed by any Mayan group, occurs
40 days after the Quiché New Year's. It won't be until the year 2217
that the Quiché New Year's corresponds with January 1st.

The Little New Year Now, let's remember that the
tzolkin cycle has 260 days. Because of this, the year bearer which
entered in February will return in November! For example, 7 Wind
enters as the year bearer on Feb 26th, 1993.

This is the first day
of the first haab month, First Lord. The first day of the second
haab month (Second Lord) falls on 1 Wind, and the next on 8 Wind, 2
Wind, 9 Wind, and so on. After 13 haab months are passed through, 7
Wind returns to initiate the 14th haab month (Trees) on November
13th. This is recognized by the Quiché as a "little New Year."

The Four Sacred Mountains
The four year bearers are said to "enter" on four of the many sacred
mountains which surround Momostenango. Each year bearer corresponds
with a specific mountain and direction, as follows:

There are two additional day-signs known as "secretaries" which help
the year bearers enter. Eagle enters on the sacred mountain of the
north, Pipil, and Lizard enters on Joyan. But there's no need to
unnecessarily complicate the picture. Suffice it to say that the
Quiché went to great pains to create a rich field of mythological
symbols.

Wind will enter on the sacred mountain
of west, Socop, on February 26th, 1993. The 5 days leading up to the
entering of this year bearer are the 5 "unlucky" days, as the 6
Quake year leaves. Activity is curtailed, people stay at home and
eat little. They especially abstain from sex and green vegetables.

On the day before the year bearer
enters, what we would call New Years Eve, the daykeepers prepare for
the impending celebration with prayers to the earth-god Mundo and
the new year bearer, which is called by the Ixil Maya the mam. And
the culture at large prepares for festivities and fireworks, usually
beginning at midnight. But even after sunset on New Years Eve, it is
recognized that the old year bearer has now left, and the new year
bearer begins to stir.

Exactly at what point the day-sign's
influence begins is a matter of contention, even among the
daykeepers themselves. Some say it begins at sunrise, while others
insist it begins at midnight. An argument could be made for the
first stirrings of a day-sign at sunset of the previous day, or even
after the sun passes its zenith on the previous day. And yet a day
is generally considered over when the sun sets (the word Q'ij means
both day and sun). At any rate, the modern Quiché seem to time at
least some of their celebrations as the clock strikes 12, so to
speak.

The Calendar Round The combination of tzolkin
and haab create a large cycle of 52 haab, known as a Calendar Round.
It equals just 13 days less than 52 solar years. It consists of
18,980 days, or 73 tzolkin cycles and 52 haab cycles. The math:

73 x 260 = 52 x 365 = 18,980
days.

The question of when this period begins
depends upon which year bearer is considered to be the "senior" year
bearer. When the number 1 rolls around to join with the senior year
bearer, Calendar Round celebrations took place. Unfortunately, the
present day Quiché have little interest in this large cycle,
although they still vaguely acknowledge it.

We can reconstruct the Quiché Calendar
Round based upon the fact that Deer is the senior year bearer of the
Quiché (as well as for the Ixil Maya). A list of year bearers will
help us locate when 1 Deer occurs as the year bearer:

The next Quiché Calendar Round begins on
February 18th in the year 2026. This means that the present Calendar
Round began on March 3rd, 1974. The Calendar Round cycle is useful
when we begin to explore the larger planetary and eclipse cycles,
and how the tzolkin/haab was originally intended to structure them.

For instance, the ancient Venus Round
calendar is comprised of 2 consecutive Calendar Rounds. Twenty of
these Venus Rounds equal thirteen conjunctions of Uranus and Neptune
(there's that 20:13). Another example: The astronomical eclipse
half-year is 173.3 days. This period of time indicates the interval
between when eclipses can be expected to occur.

It just so happens that three of these
eclipse half-years equal two tzolkins:

173.3 x 3 = 260 x 2 = 520
days.

This is an aspect of the calendar that one rediscovers in ones
studies, although it is not directly applicable to the present day Quiché Maya.

The 8 Monkey Festival
Many tzolkin days have special meaning to the Quiché. The most
famous festival timed by the tzolkin calendar falls on 8 Batz.
Travellers who happen to be in Momostenango on 8 Batz are surprised
to see daykeepers and visitors from many other Quiché towns flooding
into Momostenango. What is the meaning behind this special day? 8
Batz means 8 Monkey. This is the tzolkin day on which prospective
new daykeepers are initiated at specific earth-shrines near town.

The event is actually the culmination of
months of preparation, in which the novice and his or her teacher
practice counting the sacred days, and make offerings at local
shrines. The teacher-daykeeper also begins to model for the novice,
to demonstrate how to cast readings with tz'ite beans according to
the sacred count of days. The preparatory "permission" days, leading
to 8 Batz, are observed as follows:

During the 7 Wind year, 8 Batz occurs on
September 23rd. So the series of permission days just related occur
between May 22nd (1 Deer) and September 16th (1 Lizard). Yet this is
not all. There are four levels of daykeepers among the Quiché
people. First there are the common apprentices, whom we have been
discussing and who for all practical purposes are in training. There
are upwards of 10,000 of these common daykeepers among the Maya.

Next, there are perhaps 300 "patrilineage"
priest-shamans, who speak and do readings for their own extended
family or lineage. At the third level, there are the "canton"
priest-shamans. They represent the 14 or so civil districts around
Momostenango. Finally, two or three mother-fathers at the highest
level are respected daykeepers, well versed in local myth and
calendar lore.

These highest calendar-priests are
experienced elders, male or female, and speak for the entire region.
The amazing thing I am getting at is that initiation events for each
of these levels are timed alongside the permission days related
above. A three-tiered hierarchy is demonstrated; and each level is
not mutually exclusive, but intricately interwoven. For example, the
permission days related above pertain to the novice level. It
consists of two separate phases, which also interlap. 1 Deer through
1 Road are called "washing for the mixing point." And 1 Storm
through 1 Lizard are called "Washing for the work service." And 8
Batz occurs 7 days after the last of these days, 1 Lizard.

The day before 8 Batz and the day after
are also considered part of the ceremony. So these are the
permission days of the novice daykeeper, consisting of two different
types of shrine ritual, and the two interlap. To complicate the
matter, the second and third levels of calendar-priests, serving
lineage and canton, observe a series of shrine rituals alongside
this framework. Some of the days are shared by both tiers, while
some are observed by only the novice daykeepers and others are
observed by only the lineage and canton keepers.

Two different types of service are also observed by this second
tier, called "Backpack" and "Washing the shrine." Both tiers
culminate around the 8 Batz festival. The fourth level of
calendar-priests fill the third tier in the shrine-rite hierarchy.
They are the 2 or 3 mother-fathers, and have been through all of
this already many times.

The initiation rites into this highest
level of calendar practice take place right after 8 Batz, on the
sacred tzolkin days 9 Road, 10 Staff, and 11 Jaguar. The following
chart sums up this multi-leveled initiation which culminates on the
8 Batz festival: Chart showing multi-leveled daykeeper service days,
culminating in the famous 8 Monkey festival:

This inclusive system, forming the
infrastructure of local government, is a highly sophisticated form
of social organization. It serves the religious as well as the civil
needs of the local people, and is termed a "civil-religious
hierarchy." And it should be remembered that this hierarchy is not
one of mutual exclusion (the type we in the West may be most
familiar
with), but of mutual understanding supported by an interwoven and
shared worship, many times even at the same outdoor earth shrine.

So this practice really gives us a
picture of the progressive and complex social systems of the Quiché
Maya, which honor the many different levels of reality. Furthermore,
it is inherent in the Quiché world-view that these different facets
of life are not seen as irreconcilable, but as sharing the same
space, as adaptable and flexible symbols which, if altered, do not
threaten the underlying foundation of worship.

Skywatching Events
High level Quiché daykeepers climb to the mountain shrine Nima Sabal
on a series of tzolkin days to track the moon against the background
of stars. This skywatching period occurs twice during a tzolkin
cycle and each period extends over 82. The first runs between 9 Deer
and 13 Rain and the second runs between 9 Monkey and 13 Staff.

Again, this separate service runs
concurrent with the other shrine visits just discussed. During the 7
Wind year, it takes place between July 21st (9 Deer) and October
11th (13 Rain), and between November 2nd (9 Monkey) and January 23rd
1994 (13 Staff). Barbara Tedlock points out that 82 days equals 3
sidereal lunar months of 27.3 days each.

This has to do with the position of the
moon against the background of stars, and is apparently used by the
Quiché daykeepers to adjust their trackings for slight discrepancies.
On the first day of their 82-day service, they climb to the top of
the sacred mountain Nima Sabal. During the night they may, as an
example, observe a 4-day old moon just to the left of the Pleiades.

They return in intervals of 13 or 4 days
and finally, after 3 sidereal lunar cycles (82 days) the moon will
again be near the Pleiades. Since the phase-cycle month (the synodic
month) is slightly longer than the sidereal month, the phase will be
slightly different. Needless to say, the ancient Maya penchant for
stargazing is still alive among their descendants in Guatemala.

Another important festival timed by the tzolkin occurs on 8 Deer. In
many towns this gathering approaches the 8 Batz festival in
attendance and popularity. It is interesting to note that 8 Deer
occurs at the midpoint of the "permission days" period between 1
Rain and 1 Lizard.

In the "service day" table given above, we can
see that three services are observed on 8 Deer; 8 Deer occurs 7 days
after 1 Ahau and 13 days after 1 Deer, the ancient Calendar Round
beginning date.

Also, the year bearer in 1994 is 8 Deer - it will be
interesting to observe how the traditional 8 Deer festival is
coordinated with 8 Deer as the year bearer. Three Deer was the name
of a famous Cakchiquel Lord, who was killed during the conquest.

Let me explain how to use the
circular month calendars provided here for the 7 wind year. It is
very simple to learn to track the tzolkin/haab calendar, yet the
understanding of its profound meaning grows with continued use. Each
20-day wheel represents a 20-day haab month. The term for "month" in
Yucatec Maya is "uinal" (wee-noll), thus I call these circular month
charts "Uinal Wheels."

The Quiché year 7 Wind begins on
February 26th, 1993.
Because the year bearer for '93 is 7 Wind, each haab month begins at
the top on the day Wind. The period of time covered in our Gregorian
Calendar is given near each uinal wheel. Space is allotted for notes
and observations. The tzolkin number is given below the day-sign
glyph by way of the "dot and bar" system of the ancient Maya.

This combination of dot, bar and glyph
is how tzolkin dates are recorded in the archeological inscriptions
one finds among the many ruins of Guatemala. The concept is simple:
a bar equals 5 and a dot equals one. For example, 7, 11, and 2 are
written:

All 13 numbers are represented in this
way. Counting clockwise from Wind, we can track the sequence of
sacred tzolkin dates as they correspond with our Gregorian system.
The ancient Maya are also credited with discovering the concept of
zero independently of Old World mathematicians. It was represented
with a stylized shell:

The inner wheel gives the name of
the haab month represented, and the day of the haab follows
below each tzolkin date. So these month wheels provide the
tzolkin/haab designation for each day in the 7 Wind year, Feb.
26th 1993 to Feb 25th 1994. Using the first uinal of the 7 Wind
year, which is portrayed on the front cover of this book, we
find that the name of this haab month is Nabe Mam, or First
Lord. It runs from Feb 26th to March 17th, and begins at the top
with the year bearer, 7 Wind.

Counting around the wheel we find
that March 3rd occurs on 12 Deer 6 First Lord, and March 14th
occurs on 10 Knife 17 First Lord. Since this booklet is to be
made available on January 1st, 1993, I have included two uinal
wheels for the time period just prior to the 7 Wind year. This
allows the reader to begin tracking the tzolkin/haab with the
last two uinals of the 6 Quake year, as of January 12th, 1993 (1
Quake 1 Fire).

A list is provided here to compare
Quiché month names with the better known Yucatec Maya month names:

The Gregorian calendar is given a
secondary place in these calendars for a reason. In a sense, the
Mayan haab and the Gregorian year serve the same purpose. They both
refer to the civil or secular count of days - the obvious yearly
cycle of the earth around the sun.

The Maya preserved a 365-day
approximation of the year, even after they realized a more accurate
method for tracking the true solar year. They did an amazing thing
by combining the haab count with a sacred count, the tzolkin, which
symbolizes the mysterious inner dimension of reality. In this way,
the two aspects of human experience, the sacred and the secular, the
inner realm and the outer realm, are synthesized into one
comprehensive cosmo-conception.

The world view which thus follows is a
complete acknowledgement of spirit in matter; one in which the
processes of the microcosm and macrocosm mirror each other. By
comparison, the Gregorian system, though mathematically more
accurate, provides only a lifeless cosmos of clockwork drudgery, an
endless ticking of the minutes, hours and days.

The Maya recognized that our sense of
time defines the depth of experience of a culture, and then
endeavored to model the fantastic nature of the multidimensional
cosmos that they perceived around them. If the tzolkin/haab becomes
our primary time reference, only secondarily related to the
Gregorian system (as a convenience), we may begin to embrace a more
complete and mature attitude towards life on earth.

Uinal Wheels

Uinal Wheels designed for the 7 Wind
book. The Uinal Wheels used in the 1993 "7 Wind" calendar are now,
of course, out of date.

An example
of my design is found on the front cover of the book

A close-up
view of the "extra day" month or Vayeb that ended the
Quiché 7 Wind year

A lot of the deeper implications of Mayan time philosophy have
already been addressed. I would like to mention a few additional
ideas, which suggest even more incredible properties. Many of these
qualities relate to the sacred/secular theme spoken of elsewhere. A
graphic illustration of this involves Venus.

The Venus Round Calendar
The cycles of tzolkin, haab and Venus mesh in such a way that all
three synchronize every 2 Calendar Rounds. This period of 104 haab
is called a Venus Round. The math:

146 x 260 = 104 x 365 = 65 x
584 = 37,960 days

Thus, the sacred/secular framework of
the tzolkin and haab serve to mythologically and mathematically
structure the observed cycle of Venus. And we've already discussed
the relationship of the 260-day cycle to human gestation, as well as
to the growing period of corn. In addition to this, Venus's
visibility as morningstar approximately equals 260 days. We have
here a Venus-corn-gestation partnership - a thread which ties
together three different levels.

Now here's the clincher - In the Quiché
Popol Vuh, humans are said to be made out of corn dough! On a tree
of life carving at Palenque, corn stalks bloom with human faces. One
can see both sacred and secular concerns addressed in these ideas -
united via the tzolkin. This multi-tiered interweaving mythology
never fails to arose ones curiosity and admiration - the Maya were
surely adept visionaries and myth-makers.

The entire Venus Round Calendar is based upon the fact that 8 years
= 5 Venus cycles. This means that Venus traces a five-pointed star
around the zodiac over a period of 8 years. The ancient Sumerians
also recognized this, and the infamous pentagram probably has its
roots in this profound truth. The 8:5 ratio relates to music theory
and is the doorway through to the greater mystery of the Sacred
Calendar.

Fractal harmonics is removed from the
realm of abstract theory and is recognized as an inherent ordering
principle of the cosmos. In essence, many of the sacred Mayan
numbers and ratios, as well as Mayan philosophy, point to the Golden
Proportion as one source of the Sacred Calendar's incredible
properties.

The Golden Proportion is a unique ratio,
explored by the ancient Greeks, and is the mathematical source for
the spirals which manifest in seashells, pine cones, and other
natural phenomena. It was known as PHI ( = 1.618), and was thought
to represent the essential principles of fractal growth and harmonic
resonance. Incredibly, the ratios 8/5 and 20/13 both approximate the
Golden Proportion; PHI plays a key role in the numerical and
philosophical dynamics of the tzolkin!

As the mathematical center of the Sacred
Calendar, it informs all levels of the Calendar's meanings - from
human gestation up to planetary cycles. For more information on
this, I would refer the interested reader to my recent book Tzolkin:
Visionary Perspectives and Calendar Studies, available from Four Ahau Press.

Hunab K'u The sacred day on which all
of these cycles synchronize is 1 Ahau, which is known as the Sacred
Day of Venus. This day-sign has been the subject of much myth and
ceremony throughout Mayan history. The linguistic transformations
are intriguing:

One Ahau
Hun Ahau
Hunahpu
Hunab K'u

Ahau is pronounced "Ah-how." Hun is the
Mayan word for one. Hunahpu is one of the hero twins in the Popol
Vuh, who at the end of the story becomes the sun. The meanings of
the day-sign Ahau are many: Lord, Sun, Flower, Marksman or
Blowgunner. Hunab K'u, ultimately derived from One Ahau, is the
highest Mayan God. As source and creatrix, this god/goddess above
dualities is said to be "The One Giver of Movement and Measure."

As far as beginnings go, Hunab K'u
refers to a larger perspective than One Ahau, perhaps even to the
Galactic Center - our cosmic origins. But even One Ahau, as the
"launching off point" for tzolkin, haab and Venus, retains a similar
function as "giver of movement and measure."

Hunab K'u
As an aside, Hunab K'u is a Yucatec Maya term. The Quiché term for
this same god is Hura C'an, from which is derived the english word
hurricane. In the above depiction, Hunab K'u is conceived as a
swirling cauldron of the cosmic dualities - and reminds us of the
oriental yin-yang symbol. It symbolizes the many levels of the
sacred/secular duality we have been discussing - male/female,
lunar/solar, subjective/objective, mind/body, spirit/matter, and so
on.

And we should remember that in keeping
with what we know about Mayan time, this duality is one of mutual
involvement and complimentarity, not irreconcilable opposition.
Furthermore, a principle of unfolding or flowering is inherent in
time; movement and measure beget expansion. The cosmic conflict of
yin and yang thus engender the natural processes of change and
growth which surround us, and of which we are a part.

And this is a critical quality of spiral
time: growth. For all of its seeming abstractness, Mayan cosmology
is extremely organic. In fact, Mayan philosophy may be likened to
the spiral unfolding that we see in seashells, pine cones and
flowers - analogies drawn from nature. And Mayan earth worship -
prayers to Tiox and Mundo - acknowledge this profound principle;
that the earth is a living being, struggling through eons to bring
forth the exquisite flower of spiritual awareness.

So without further tracing the journey
by which I say what I say, let me try to state things simply: The
Sacred Calendar is a cosmological model which unites inner and outer
reality and explains the earth's inherent goal of physical and
spiritual unfolding.

Yet this is not the end-all. Is there ever one? Going further, here
is a hint of what lies hidden beyond the veil:

Imagine a comprehensive cosmology of
numbers which unites the workings of both the material and
spiritual realms. Imagine it to be based upon the ancient
systems of the I Ching and the Golden Proportion. Furthermore,
imagine this brilliant philosophy as a revival and completion of
Kepler's obsession with a "harmony of the heavens" based on the
five Platonic Solids. You have just imagined the Mesoamerican
Sacred Calendar.

And what does Hunab K'u have to do with
all this? Well, everything. How can I restate this progressive and
ancient understanding of the cosmos which is embedded in the Sacred
Calendar...

The time sense implied in the tzolkin is rooted in natural cycles.
In essence, this truth involves a seeming paradox, for what
"natural" cycle does the tzolkin correspond to? Answer: the human
gestation period. In turn, the tzolkin is then used as a key factor
in the amazing calendar of the Maya; the organic gestation cycle is
used as a calendric constant to structure the celestial cycles of
the planets, sun, and stars.

In other words, the cycles of humanity
are linked with the cycles of the planets - not in the
cause-and-effect sense - but by virtue of a more mysterious
principle of correspondence. The relationship is of a type of
mirroring, an unconnected and distant affinity because both realms
are unfolding with the same rhythm!

How? Because mind and world, spirit and
matter, the objective and subjective realms, are spun off from the
same moment of creation. Call it Galactic Center, the Big Bang, God
- whatever. In Mayan terms, this source is none other than Hunab K'u
- Giver of Movement and Measure.

Summary
Mayan time conception is more sophisticated than the one presently
in vogue among the "western" cultures. It involves an approach or
attitude of mutual involvement, overlapping inclusion, and adaptable
pro-active problem solving, rather than "taking a stand", "sticking
to our guns," or "peace through strength."

The Maya enjoy a world-view free from
the entrapments of dualistic thinking. And while this may sound
hyperbolic or grandiose, we have only to look carefully at the
shrouded traditions and ceremonies of the present day Quiché Maya.
Still tenuously holding onto ageless traditions amidst continuous
onslaughts from the outside "civilized" world, they may very well
hold the secrets of a more mature perspective - one which may
transform the world. How can we learn to perceive time and
experience life in this seemingly more evolved way? Can we?

I feel that we can, and learning to
track the tzolkin/haab calendar is a start - a doorway to that realm
beyond dualities - where humanity meets and participates with the
Great Spirit . . .